Message from the CEO
2023 turned out to be a highly successful year in which we surpassed our expectations and excelled our achievements in the previous year and therefore, our aspirations and anticipations for the future got stronger. Throughout the year, we continued to differentiate our malls through a distinctive vision with consideration of global trends and customized experience offerings to our customers. In 2023, the commercial real estate and retail industries kept their dynamism and upwards trend which was carried forward from the previous year. Thanks to this trend, our malls were able to break turnover records in both TRY and USD and the increase in our rent income was considerably higher than the inflation rate.
In 2023, occupancy management, leasing strategies and savings combined with our digitalization and innovation efforts constituted the core components of our robust performance as we made efforts to maximize the efficiency of our operational properties. We achieved an occupancy rate of 99% in both malls thanks to well-planned expansions and new leases. As we concluded a period in which footfalls got quite close to the pre-pandemic period, shopping volumes increased regularly throughout the year and the retail stores in our malls broke turnover records, we kept differentiating Akasya Mall from its competitors by renewing its store mix. Besides, Akbatı Mall was able to maintain its track record of success by offering a brand mix tailored to the needs of the district where it is located.
Furthermore, we created a structure that will minimize the impact of fluctuations in exchange and interest rates in order to improve our indebtedness and short position profile as in the recent years. As a result of our actions, more than half of our indebtedness is now in TRY and the derivatives we use make it possible to minimize the impact of fluctuations in interest rates. Also, we did our best to make effective use of capital markets. One of our main goals will be to keep reducing indebtedness with the help of cash assets to be created by the Company in the upcoming period.
2023 proved to be a very good year for the Company in terms of sustainability. According to Refinitiv platform to which we report, our company ranks among the top 10 companies out of 473 global companies operating in the same industry. Also, we are the first entity outside the finance industry to receive an ESG rating from Sustainable Fitch in Türkiye.
In 2024, our priorities will be to increase our rent income as much as possible while reducing our loan debts just as we did in the previous years. Furthermore, we will focus on our digitalization and innovation efforts as well as stakeholder satisfaction and anticipations as we do our best to uphold our goal of creating preferred living spaces. Besides, sustainability will maintain as an integral part of our corporate culture and driving force of all our operations.
Best regards,
Levent ÇanakçılıGeneral Manager